Tasmania’s Way to St James Cygnet Pilgrimage saw 160 pilgrims taking part in a walk through the Huon Valley last weekend, with more than 1000 people from 30 nations walking a similar pilgrimage in their own countries. Source: Hobart Archdiocese.
Pilgrimage founder Fr Michael Tate said he believed the popular annual event would continue to grow in the future.
“This is no longer a local pilgrimage, though it is earthed in the Huon Valley,” he said. “It clearly now resonates on the mainland and around the world. I’m sure it will become a great global pilgrimage.”
In its 10th year, the local pilgrimage is a 30 kilometre trek through the picturesque countryside of southern Tasmania, beginning at the Mountain River Community Hall and finishing at the Spanish-style St James’ Church in Cygnet.
The pilgrimage is modelled on the famous Camino de Santiago in Spain, with participants wearing scallop shells around their necks and carrying passports that they get stamped along the way.
At the conclusion of the pilgrimage, a large icon of St James is processed into the church at Cygnet, and participants place stones in front of it, to symbolise a “letting go” of their burdens.
Member of the organising committee, Leanne Prichard, has walked every Way to St James Cygnet Pilgrimage since it began in 2016.
“Walking the Way to St James Cygnet Pilgrimage has been an enriching part of my January each year since I first walked it as a pilgrim in 2016,” she said. “This year it was the perfect way for participants to start this Holy Year of Jubilee as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’.”
The Global Way to St James Pilgrimage is in its fifth year and was founded during the Covid-19 pandemic as a response to the cancellation of the local pilgrimage.
Participants in the global pilgrimage are asked to walk the same distance as the local event and are encouraged to send photos to the Way to St James Cygnet Facebook page.
Ms Prichard said she was “amazed and inspired” by the hundreds of pilgrims who participated in the global event, walking “in peace and solidarity” with the Tasmanian pilgrims.
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Over a thousand around the world join Tasmanian pilgrimage (By Catherine Sheehan, Hobart Archdiocese)
